Globular One

By Stephen W. Cote

First Rehearsal

Martin Shueller, Globular One designer and chief engineer, was the second to sit down, across from Ruffus Floyd, in the same room, twenty seconds after Ruffus. He unbuttoned his suit jacket, clicked his heels together, adjusted his bow-tie, sipped the steaming coffee for formality's sake, then placed the Globular One folder in front of him.

Daiske Wakayama, senior United Nations funding supervisor, was the third to sit down, three comfortably, ergonomic-padded chairs down from Ruffus, forty seven seconds after Martin Shueller had finished sipping his coffee. He unbuttoned his jacket, adjusted his tie, sipped the steaming coffee for formality's sake, then placed the UN Funding Resolution packet in front of him. Several seconds and two curious glances from Ruffus Floyd and Martin Shueller later, his heels clicked together.

Henry James, senior executive of the Globular One project, coordinator of Station 3, chief figure responsible for popularizing the use of NeoLyte and Webber "SpongeSpace"(tm), was the fourth, and the last to sit down in the dark room, fifteen seconds after Daiske Wakayama's heels clicked together. He unbuttoned and removed his jacket, loosened his tie, snarled at the coffee, and opened the highly classified, top secret, twelve trillion dollar meeting with, "how can you drink this shit?"

The four men argued, squabbled, stood up with shaking fists, and for several hours, reviewed their strategies.

Henry James shook his head four hours into the meeting. "Marty, Ruffus, let's take a step back. The President wants the X-5 to have coupling abilities with Globular One. Money, time, engineering and technology are not issues. Secrecy is."

"Henry," Martin pushed his fingers into gray hair infested temples, "the Globular One is meant to be the foundation for Station 3. It is the primary building block that will house the main computer, initial power source, and environment reaction fields. The design is as tight as nun's ass. You can't sneeze on it without the whole world knowing exactly where the phlegm landed."

"I," Henry started, repeating it again to control the conversation. "I understand that, Martin. All I'm asking is, how can we grant direct coupling abilities with Globular One without anyone finding out?"

Martin stared at a new cup of steaming java, decided to break formality, and drain it. The caffeine did absolutely nothing for his nerves. He looked helplessly at Ruffus.

"Henry," Ruffus opened his folder and slid a single sheet of paper to Henry and Martin, "here are my specifications on a stable, though somewhat makeshift dock for the X-5. Globular One will have fourteen hundred pounds of SpongeSpace. With only a crew of six, it wouldn't be difficult for Martin to increase the load of SpongeSpace."

Daiske intervened. "That would be difficult, Ruffus. The UN is already skeptical of Globular One having any SpongeSpace on it at all. Webber has so many restrictions, trademarks, and patents on it that we have to pay a royalty to them every time we use that name in a document or speech. Increasing the load on your end won't be hard. SpongeSpace is expensive, some three million dollars per pound, and that sort of expense will eventually be noticed. Questions will be asked, Ruffus."

"But," Ruffus said, succumbing to the irresistible temptation to drain his coffee also. He noticed that, while Daiske had been talking, Martin's coffee had been refilled. Ruffus had never even seen someone enter the room to do it. "A few NeoLyte beams and five pounds of SpongeSpace per day are all that is needed for a dock. I've designed it to be large enough to hold two X-5s, at five pounds per day."

"Gentlemen, gentlemen," Henry said. "What difference does it make if we use SpongeSpace for the dock, or Jell-O? The point is, would it be kept a secret?"

Ruffus nodded. "The only direct couple needed would be for fuel, and the refueling hose can be outfitted with a plunger that would lock down on the X-5's fuel tank. The pilot would then leave Globular One through the hatch, swim through the SpongeSpace, and enter the X-5. No direct connections, but you have something close enough to a direct coupling with Globular One."

"Alright," Henry nodded. "Next issue. The X-5 and Globular One commanders."

Martin and Ruffus whispered across the table with each other.

"Pablo Rodriguez, a Chilean scientist, will be the X-5 commander." Ruffus passed out a stapled packet of information to Martin and Henry.

"Thomas Muchetto, France's best tactician, will be Globular One's commander." Martin passed out a packet, stapled in the same fashion, on the same bond paper as Ruffus', to Henry and Ruffus.

"I've noticed that the both of you," Henry said, looking to Martin and Ruffus, "have opted for the SGI contracts and turn these brilliant minds into HIM-heads."

"It's necessary, Henry. Globular One's commander will be responsible for making decisions that an AI cannot. However, we can't leave room for human error. SGI provided the best solution with the HMX." Martin squinted across the table at Ruffus.

Ruffus twitched his lips. "There is one slight defect, to date, with the HMX alpha models that we'll be using."

Henry raised an eyebrow. "I wasn't aware that they had defects."

"SGI knows how to keep secrets, Henry," Ruffus said. "The HMX can return dirty' information, or corrupted responses, if the HIM-head is sexually aroused. SGI's solution was simple and logical at the time. Eliminate the sex drive by running the cortex fibers through that specific portion of the brain."

"Won't the result in a loss of human judgement, though?" Henry looked at the packets that he had been passed.

Martin shook his head. "No sir, it is, in effect, like making them a eunuch, or so went SGI's plans."

"However," Ruffus continued, "it appears that the sex drive is compensated for by the creative portions of the brain, and," he broke off, not sure how to organize his words.

"And?" Henry asked when Ruffus had stopped.

"Homosexual tendencies may occur," Martin finished.

"We're not looking at having two flaming queers in command of two very expensive pieces of hardware, are we?" Henry queried.

Ruffus shook his head. "There is no conclusive evidence that these homosexual tendencies lead to flamboyant behavior, simply a very primal sexual attraction to other men, or women, depending on the gender."

Henry shrugged. "Well, I believe we should go ahead as scheduled. Globular One will be outfitted with the SpongeSpace dock for the X-5, and once the Shuttle leaves orbit and we jam the satellite cameras aimed at it, then the X-5 can be unveiled for all of the world not to notice."

"Henry, won't people start wondering why Globular One is using up all its water for the X-5's micropile engines, and that the next phase of Station-3 components will be delayed by several years?" Martin gathered his belongings and sipped at his coffee, waiting for Henry's reply.

"Do you honestly believe that people are going to notice? Most of them don't realize that Twentieth Century governments haven't done a single thing for their people that wasn't military related." Henry laughed.

"A few billion dollars here, a few billion dollars there, eventually it adds up and somebody will notice." Daiske had also started to gather his belongings.

Henry chuckled and patted Daiske on the back as he left. "It's all in the oil, dear boy. We've got solar power chips one inch by one inch that can power entire neighborhoods and cost fifty cents to make. Without the oil, we wouldn't have had enough money to pay for the lousy coffee you've been drinking."

The meeting adjourned and, for the most part, nobody suspected a thing until the Globular One was constructed, and the six man crew was preparing to enter space, and a new world.

Copyrighted to Stephen W. Cote and Fantasy Writers, LTD, 1995.